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UNH Student from Concord Going on Expedition to the Highest Point in Greenland

DURHAM, N.H. -- Choosing to spend part of your summer break camping in zero
degree temperatures in the snow at 13,000 feet might be an unusual choice, but
Catherine Denoncourt, a senior at the University of New Hampshire from Concord
has an opportunity to pursue some serious science.

Denoncourt will participate in an expedition to Greenland July 15 to Aug. 3 to study
how records of air pollutants get trapped in snow and ice. Her involvement is made
possible by a Research & Discover internship sponsored by NASA and UNH's
Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space.

This trip will officially end a two-year experiment, as well as test a new device to be
used in future experiments on what Denoncourt's faculty advisor Jack Dibb, UNH
research professor, calls a "wonderfully complex problem."

Atmospheric scientists are stumped as to why more nitric acid -- the chemical that
combines with sulfuric acid to cause acid rain -- is found in snow than in the
surrounding atmosphere. Another puzzling phenomenon is that the air within and
just above the snow found in isolated areas of the world like Summit, Greenland, is
showing a chemical composition that would only be expected in highly polluted
urban areas.

On this particular expedition, the researchers are looking at the chemical processes
that occur when the ultraviolet light in sunlight reacts with the nitric acid in the snow
creating pollutants.

Dibb, the project's principal investigator, explains that one implication of this "wacky
photochemistry" is that records of greenhouse gases found in ice cores could be
misleading, since the snow may not be accurately recording what gases are present in
the atmosphere. Denoncourt will participate firsthand in this leading-edge science
from what will seem like the top of the world.

"I had never in my lifetime expected to go to Greenland," Denoncourt says. "It is
exciting to go somewhere where hardly anybody else has been. I find it fascinating
that snow can record what is in the atmosphere. I'm learning a lot; I'm a geology
major, but this research involves a lot of chemistry."

Dibb says, "It is a lot of fun for me to take new people to Summit. I've been there so
many times that I easily forget the excitement of being in this extremely beautiful
place."

Dibb and Denoncourt are the only researchers going on this expedition from UNH.
They will be joined in Greenland by a crew from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab (CRREL) and a scientist from the
University of California-Irvine.

By Amy Seif
Communication and Information Coordinator
Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans, and Space
603-862-5369